"Ulla and Ruud Torunn."
"What?" Their names were the sound most people made after eating bad Mexican food. I flipped the visor up. "The first thing they'll need is new names."
Tobias shifted into the far left lane and darted around a Fiat. The speedometer hovered at one hundred-twenty miles per hour. "Yes, changing a witness's name is usually the first order of business."
"Don't get snippy with me." I held onto the 'aw snap' handle as he swerved across three lanes of traffic to hit the off ramp onto Carefree Highway. "I've never done this before. Shouldn't I have some information about them?"
Or a manual? Maybe a WitSec for dummies?
Tobias nodded. "Check your datapad."
Easy for him to say! My Smartphone was currently being used as a doomsday clock. One minute and twelve seconds left until the Torunns arrived from someplace far, far away. "Is it all right if I remove my cell?"
"It's all yours."
Just as I reached for it, he hit the cloverleaf. The buckle and seatbelt dug into my body as I slid closer to him during the turn. The speedometer dropped to fifty-six. "Don't you think you should slow down? We're bound to hit traffic or lights."
Tobias hit the gas as we straightened out heading west along Carefree Highway. A car horn blared as he cut them off to merge. "The lights will be green until we cross them then they'll turn red, trapping or exposing any tail we might have."
I scooted back into my seat and inhaled deeply. "You can't know that."
"I can guarantee it." He waved his hand at the dash that had more lights than most Christmas trees.
Tobias's fancy gadgets would give James Bond a wet dream. Especially since they appeared quite mundane.
"I've heard cops and firemen have a similar device." I released my death grip on the handle and snatched my phone from its cradle on the dash. The clock readout faded. Soon after the three familiar icons appeared. "Are you telling me that's alien technology?"
"No, the UED believes each incarnation has to evolve on its own. We only interfere when the technology is too dangerous or might make the planet uninhabitable." Tires screeched as he slowed the truck to tailgate a boat trailer.
I gritted my teeth and stomped on the emergency brakes on my side of the car before flashing him a thumbs-up. "Good job with the atom bomb."
"We kept it out of the Axis's hands." He swerved into oncoming lane of traffic and roared around the truck and trailer. "And we gave it to the Soviets to make sure your government didn't use it."
"I wouldn't be proud of that if I were you." To this day, big mushroom clouds occasionally cropped up in my nightmares. I shook off my past. My future faced a more immediate threat. Now how exactly did my cell work again? Right, ask it a question. Who are the Torunns?
The screen didn't change. I tapped the cupcake icon. My messages had been there before maybe that's where the file had ended up.
Just two messages. I opened both of them and scrolled through the information. No attachments or other files. Maybe I was doing something wrong. "Do I have to actually ask the Smartphone a question out loud?"
Tobias gunned the engine and we broke free of the few cars on the road. Darkness pressed against the truck. "You should be able to think it too. The CeeBees are connected to your brain."
Thanks for that. I scratched my scalp. Nothing like knowing hundreds of little machines crawled inside my head to make me itch. "Who are the Torunns?"
The screen of the Smartphone fell dark. Finally, something. I waited a heart beat, then two. At ten, I touched the screen. Crap on a cracker! The darn thing had just went into hibernate mode. I quickly opened the icons.
Nothing new. Zip. Nada. A big fat goose egg! Maybe it couldn't hear me.
I raised the cell to my lips. "Who are the Torunns? Give me anything on them." No change. "Anything at all."
I resisted the urge to slap the screen. God I hated technology. Everyone always said buy this and you're life will be easier. Those yahoos lied out their behinds.
"I think my phone is broken."
"You've checked for a new file?"
"Of course." Just because I didn't speak technojargon didn't make me an idiot.
"Let me see it."
I handed him the phone. Who cared if he drove with one hand at speeds just below imminent death? If I didn't succeed at this job I was a goner anyway.
He handed the phone back to me, glared at the road and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "You should have received a file on them by now. Two actually, since we told control that your cell wasn't working."
But I hadn't. It didn't make sense. Nothing did. Especially why a man who was so gung-ho on killing me when we first met would cover for me. "You lied to protect me. Why?"
"Not you." Tobias kept his attention fixed on the starless sky. "The mission. Torunn is carrying valuable intell on the APres Guarda's plans for Earth."
I shook my head. The cab stunk with his half-truths. Sure he needed me alive, but once the information came about the Torunn's arrival time, he could easily have gotten rid of me and gained his precious information. "What else is going on here? And please don't lie to me; my life is on the line too."
The squeaking sound of him twisting his palms along the steering wheel filled the cab. "UED's Witness Security has been breached. Special Forces Intelligence reported six clients have fallen off the grid. Two bodies have shown up; the remaining four seemed to have just disappeared into space."
My mind made some dangerous connections. No. Surely not! Maybe. Heck, I hadn't thought aliens even existed until this morning. Shivering, I aimed the air conditioning vent toward the window. "These bodies... They weren't found on Earth, were they?"
"No." Tobias stopped strangling the wheel. "One was in Centauri Prime; pieces of the other were dredged up in the Midas Asteroid belt."
Pieces? I swallowed the lump in my throat. Don't think about it, Rae. I had to think about it. I didn't want to end up in bits scattered around the galaxy. "And their stewards?"
His lips twitched then firmed into a straight line. "All safe and accounted for. No suspicious influx of credits, affluence of lifestyle or deviation from their normal patterns."
I sank into my seat. That was a relief of sorts. "So how did the clients get located, let alone snatched and...killed?"
"Obviously, the same route Konstantin got a Scrambler. The UED has a traitor."
I shielded my eyes from the light of an oncoming truck. "While the weapon is a nasty way to die, it isn't that much different than the smart bullets the United States military produces."
"You're forgetting the CeeBees. They can sense aggression and change the host body's energy and DNA to evade the threat."
They can? The CeeBees could protect me? Maybe things weren't as hopeless as I thought.
"It took years for our Research and Development Department to compensate for the signal changes to help us be able to track someone tagged by the CeeBees." Tobias adjusted the rearview mirror and tapped a few of the light buttons where the radio had once been. "The system had to be very passive to work."
Was someone following us? I turned in my seat and stared out the back window. I didn't see anyone. But what did that mean? Nothing. I cowered against the cushion. "So the APres found a way around it before you guys did."
With my luck, this was about more than professional pride.
"Doubtful. The APres Guarda steal technologies from other worlds, they don't invent anything." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "We in the Spec Forces only picked up word of the Scrambler's existence two months ago and that was a prototype. It's far too early in development for a weapon to be available on the black market."
Even I had a hard time swallowing that much of a coincidence. I rubbed the goosebumps from my arms. Especially since the weapon had been on a key fob identical to Tobias's. "Would any of the stewards on Earth have known about the weapon?"
"No. Whoever the traitor is, they're high up in the administration. Very high
up and well connected to the UED governments." He rolled his shoulders.
"And they have the power to stop transmissions from being sent." I straightened. "Good God, what if they tell the police we're the bad guys and have us arrested?"
"Spec Force would detect it the moment the locals were alerted. At least Konstantin doesn't know all of Spec Force's tricks."
That explained why Tobias hadn't called the police. Yet, what if this wasn't a galactic conspiracy facing us now? What if there was a simpler explanation at least for the missing data? "Maybe your control people didn't trust me and sent the information to your phone instead?"
He grunted, shifted in his seat and pulled his Smartphone out of his pocket. "All data from headquarters comes in under Cirroc."
"Got it." I accepted the warm plastic and stared at the screen. Holy Toledo! The man had at least sixty icons. I scrolled through the cartoon pictures. Cirroc. Cirroc. Was that with a 's' or a 'c'? "Spell that for me?"
Tobias slowed the truck as we approached a three-way intersection. He veered to the right as we shot through the light. "C-I-R-R-O-C. Look for the figure of a man in a blue unitard."
"Right." I skimmed back up the pages. At least the icons were alphabetized. I taped the blue uniformed man and waited. "What kind of game is Cirroc?"
"It's not a game." He lifted his foot from the accelerator and the truck began to slow. "It's like Earth Martial Arts, except the purpose of each movement is to inflict pain or kill."
"Lovely. You're probably an expert at it too, aren't you?"
"Yes."
The file opened and a blank screen appeared. "You have no messages."
Tobias reached over and set his hand over the screen. Calloused fingers wrapped around mine. He squeezed gently before releasing my hand. "Some programs require a genetic key. Now what do you see?"
Four message titles appeared on the screen—Keep her moaning in bed, extend your love life, improve your well being and lonely single ladies looking for you. Each had an open envelop next to it. My fingers itched to tap one. Obviously stupid had invaded my head again. Those kinds of thoughts could get me killed. "Everything in your inbox has been opened and makes me wonder about your sex life."
"When you're ready to stop wondering about it and find out, let me know." He held out his hand.
Cheeks blazing, I dropped the phone in his palm. "That was meant as a joke."
Although some human resource zealots might view it as harassment.
After tucking the phone in his pocket, he slammed on the brakes and cranked the wheel.
"Never joke about sex." Headlights cut into the cab and horns blared as he turned left in front of an oncoming semi.
I closed my eyes as the big rig's grill filled my window. OhGod-OhGod! My heart battered my chest and my lungs heaved as I was thrown against the door then jerked into the center of the cab. Gravel pelted the wheel well as we fish-tailed onto Lake Pleasant Road.
I peeked through my lashes. The cityscape glowed before me and lightning flashed in the hills to the west. I clutched my chest before making sure the rest of me was still intact. Son of a monkey's butt! "You could have killed me."
Smiling, he cranked the wheel again—this time to the right. We bumped onto a rutted road. The truck bounced over a pot hole and my head slammed against the seat rest.
"Nah." The douche winked at me. "I had seconds to spare."
"Seconds?" I took a deep breath hoping to still my racing heart and tucked my trembling hands between my thighs. Goosebumps raced across my legs from touching my cold fingers. If he kept this up, I would keel over from fright.
"Relax. We're almost there."
Right. Because I could loosen my sphincter that easily. I stopped grinding my teeth and stared at the passing cacti and the glowing eyes of a coyote. Nice place for an alien space craft to land. Only a trailer park could beat it. Then again, I think we'd passed a RV park back at that turn. "Where's here exactly?"
"Pleasant Valley Airport. The back way." We bumped down the road and I clamped my jaw tight to keep from chewing my tongue. Moments later, five hangers appeared on the left and a house materialized in front of us.
I ran my fingers through my hair and winced when I tore through a knot. "You're going to land a spaceship at an airport?"
"Don't worry." He pulled into a deserted parking lot and tapped another button on the center console. Most of the lights faded away to reveal one big blue screen. Shades of red appeared; each looked like the outline of shrubs and cacti. Next, a yellowish-white jack rabbit shape appeared along with some balls of light rolling over the ground.
Cool beans. He had an infrared camera on his car. The frame shifted to the buildings as he passed. The house had two white-yellow blobs in front of a glowing box. As for the other buildings, a few hot spots indicated lights burning but not much else. "I don't see anyone."
He turned off the lights and made another doughnut. A dog shape joined the mix. "Looks clear."
With the headlight still out, Tobias left the parking lot, turned onto a small paved road away from the houses and onto a parking lot for planes. He killed the engine but the screen remained lit.
An airplane shape glowed bright white but the windows were as blue as the nighttime sky behind them.
I looked up from the screen. A dark silhouette sat still at the end of the empty row.
"That's it?" Hiding in plain sight. Simple, but effective and easy to remember. I liked that. I tapped the screen to see if the resolution would improve. "How can you tell if anyone is inside?"
"The old-fashioned way." Tobias turned the headlights on, then off three times in a row.
After tucking my Smartphone in my back pocket, I reached for the door handle.
Tobias stayed me with a touch.
"Something's wrong." He strummed the opal on his key fob dangling from the ignition until it glowed white then opened his door. "Stay here."
"No flipping way." Those who stayed behind were always killed or kidnapped. I'd already experience one today, I wasn't aiming for a perfect score. I hopped out of the cab and jogged to his side before he cleared the truck. Night wrapped around us filling the space with silence. The hair on my arm stood on end. Nature tended to be noisy—insects chirping, vermin rustling through the underbrush, and the wind whistling through branches.
Nothing seemed to stir in this nature.
Except us.
The whole world seemed to be holding its breath, waiting to see what happened next. Aw snap. Maybe I should have waited in the truck.
He stepped in front of me and raised his key fob. "Stay close and try not to get killed."
With talks like that, he could lead a pep rally. I looped my finger through his belt and nodded. "Let's go."
Sighing, he strode silently forward.
I managed to hit every pebble and send a few clattering across the tarmac. I caught my lips between my teeth.
Tobias didn't say a word.
There was a benefit to the strong silent type after all.
Halfway to the plane, he broke into a run.
I sprinted after my finger still stuck in his waistband. Geez, a little warning would have been nice. Five steps into our race, I sucked air in through my mouth but hey, I kept up. Although I didn't know how much longer I could.
He stopped short of the pilot's side of the plane, and I halted just short of his back.
"Whatever happens, don't scream." He reached for the door handle.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? I held my breath.
Tobias twisted the door handle. As soon as the lock cleared the plate, the door banged against the plane and a body rolled out of the seat to land with a splat on the asphalt.
Chapter Twelve
When the man's body hit the tarmac, his swollen belly split open. Black muck splattered his green uniform shirt, oozed out between the buttons and filled the air with the heavy scent of fecal matter. I yelped and stepped back but I didn't scream. I'd seen dead people before
but this...
This man's remains seemed more like a prop for a horror movie than real.
His fingers had swollen to oversized mittens and the skin that I could see hung limply on his bones like overstretched pantyhose.
"Konstantin obviously has another Scrambler." Tobias turned the body over.
The corpse's eyelids sunk into empty sockets, the tip of the nose folded against the upper lip and the jaw dropped open. The tongue and palate melted into the ebony goo that now trickled out his ears.
"A Scrambler did this?" I swallowed hard, holding back the bile that threatened to flood my mouth. Victor hadn't been kidding when he said it was a horrible way to die.
"Yes." Tobias removed his MP4 player from his back pocket, turned it on and held it against the man's neck. "Fortunately, the skin is left intact so we can make DNA identification."
Fortunately for those who investigated the crime maybe, but definitely not for the victim. I sidled out of the way of the liquefied remains trickling toward me and clasped my hands behind my back. Even though I knew there was nothing I could do for the man, I wanted to help. Do something.
Like catch his killer.
I might be able to do that, provided he was still on the planet. But really, why would Victor stick around? He'd done what he came to Earth to do.
Tobias's MP4 player chimed a jaunty tune. "This isn't Torunn."
Torunn, right—the alien couple who were supposed to be my first job. And last, if I failed. Can't fail much worse than a dead protectee. Hope filled my chest in a riot of wings as his announcement replayed. "It isn't?"
Tobias angled the screen to see the words written under a picture. "This man used to be Levi Kim, UED Witness Security. He's a ten year veteran with—."
"Stop! Please." I ran my hands down my face and made sure everything stuck out like it was supposed to. "The name is enough."
Enough to remember always. Levi Kim's blood was on my hands. He was my failure.
And my death warrant.
Tobias nodded and tucked the MP4 player in his back pocket.
Blue Maneuver-Urban SciFi/Fantasy (Extraterrestrial security program) Page 14